Maharashtra government logs in to connect with youth on Twitter and Facebook

The government wants youngsters to share their success stories, and felicitate those working for a good cause as ‘social media leaders’

To connect with the youth on social media, the Maharashtra government launched an initiative called ‘Social Media — MahaMitra’.

The government wants youngsters to share their success stories, and felicitate those working for a good cause as ‘social media leaders’. To achieve this, the state has launched a mobile application, where those interested can register to participate in the selection process.

So far, 25,000 people across the state have registered themselves on the app, also called Social Media MahaMitra.

The initiative is being headed by the Directorate General of Information and Public Relations (DGIPR), a government-run agency to disseminate information to print and electronic media on government policies.

Ajay Ambekar, director, information and administration, DGIPR, said that several people are using social media as a tool to do something positive for the society, and the state wants to promote them.

“This would be done by selecting them through a scientific process. An application has been developed to choose them based on their activities on social media, their followers on Twitter, friends on Facebook, likes, contacts and so on. Aspirants will have to download the app and fill up a form. Based on that information, 10 people from each district will be selected. They will then have to participate in a group discussion on a specific topic. The top participants from each district will then be selected for the final event, which will be held in Mumbai on March 24 or 25,” Ambekar said.

The final event would be a state-level group discussion, and participants will get to interact with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Their success stories will be also shared during the event.

The objective of this initiative is to make the youth understand how social media can be used to develop a strong and healthy society, he added.

Registration at districts began on February 1, and will continue till February 18. The district level group discussion will be held between March 5 and 17. The initiative is getting better response in rural areas, Ambekar said.

The state government has barred its senior officers from Class I and II from participating for the initiative.